The Lord wants us to be pure of heart. Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." and Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Snow White symbolizes that purity- she's white as snow. Ok, if you watch the show you know that Snow White isn't perfect, but her actions are done purely out of love (99% of the time- no one is perfect). Love drives her, but she does things in a pure way, she wants good to win, but she doesn't want to use evil to combat evil. As Christians, God is Love, and God/Love should drive us too. It's a different kind of "love" than the show, but it's a great example of how something good can drive you. Which leads to to times, when there seems like the only option is to use something evil or take revenge or something of that sort. There are many times when Snow is tempted per say, but she speaks up and stands up for what she believes, as she doesn't want to "fall into the trap" of conforming, or to use dark magic to combat dark magic. It also reminds me of how God has called us to follow Him. Following Him, isn't always easy and sometimes we have go against the grain, but it's better to follow God than ourselves or the worlds ways. In summary, Snow has this undying faith that there is another way, a wholesome and pure way, where she doesn't always follow "popular opinion."
The second point that really sticks out to me on the show is that "love always finds each other." Which is similar, but Snow and Charming have this undying faith that they will always find each other no matte what happens. We need to have that faith that God is with us no matter what, and to believe in the ones we love as well. Things may happen in life, and someone may travel off the beaten path, but we need to have faith and believe they will come back. If they do, we need to show them love, not hate. Which reminds me of the Prodigal Son story found in Luke 15:11-32.
photo creed: google
Another thing I've learned, is you get to chose you're destiny (your decisions can shape you're future). First off, whatever the past may be, we can't change the past, but we can make decisions today that can change our future. Which surprisingly ties into the sermon from this last week. In the sermons Jeremy was talking about when God was going to do something but men (in the examples, but women too) of faith would pray with an undying faith for God to change His mind, sometimes He did and other times He didn't. To make it clear, God is not manipulating us and we aren't manipulating Him, the point is things can change. To listen to the sermon go to http://media.centralaz.com/2014/12/20/the-beginning-of-the-end/. Also, the decisions you make today can shape tomorrow. One decision can change you're future, we have so many decisions to make each day, and we normally go to God when something goes wrong, and we complain, ask for forgiveness, ask why, but we also need to thank God for all the protection He has given us, and for guiding us in our good decisions that we may often take for granted. We also need to get in the discipline of communicating with Him, and hopefully we can make more good decisions…that's not the only reason we should communicate with Him, I'm just sharing a benefit.
Going right off of that, is that people can change. For example, Snow continually believes in the good of people, and that everyone can choose to be good. She has a hope for each individual as well as the whole situation. Her trust is incredible and she's willing to give people a second chance, even if it ends up backfiring. People being able to change is great, but they can't change on their own. With Christ anything can happen. Philippians 4:13 says, "I can do all things, through Him who gives me strength." In Once Upon A Time, it's love that helps with the change, and hope. Knowing that you don't have to be who you were. It may be a struggle and you may be tempted to go back to your old ways, and maybe sometimes you do, but change can happen. In real life, Christ can cause drastic changes in people, as well as subtle ones. The tie between the two is that love and hope are byproducts (if you will) in following Christ.
Good always wins. Throughout the show, there is faith that good will always win and guess what, it does. Yes, there are times when it looks like Satan may have won, or has the lead, but in the end good always wins. There is a spiritual warfare that has been going on for a long time and is still going on right now, but when all is said and done, Satan will be defeated once and for all. It's a powerful thing. In the show there's an emphasis that good always wins, and it made me think about my faith and how God wins and ultimately will win. I liked that message, and to have faith that good will win, even when it's not looking good. Have you ever noticed the words God and good, besides the capitalization there is one letter change… God is Good! Revelation 19 talks about that final battle and the Lord taking victory if you want to read more about it. =)
-Matthew 18:3 says, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Ok, so this verse is also said to be talking about how a child is dependent on their parents, and we should be dependent on God. Which is true, but I also want to argue, that it's talking about this undying faith. For example, children believe anything is possible, they believe in magic, the tooth fairy, Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the sad thing is (SPOILER ALERT) they aren't real, but they have faith. If they have great faith in things that aren't really real, think of the kind of faith they can have in what is real? God is real, miracles can and do happen, God can do anything. Yet as adults, we've lost that innocence and belief. We tend to look at great miracles of the Bible like fairytales that we can learn lessons from, but guess what. Unlike Once Upon A Time, The Bible is real, God is real and He is all powerful and can do anything. We need to have that faith. That's one thing I have loved about this show, is the faith that Henry has and it's made me stop and examine my faith, and realize I need to have a stronger faith in Lord, and know that anything is possible. I know it is, but I need to truly believe it and not have it be just head-knowledge or something I learned in Sunday School when I was little. Miracles are happening everyday- even when we don't know it, because something could have happened (which we have no idea about) but the Lord protected us from it. We need to thank God and truly believe in what He can do! I'm not saying that I don't believe because I do, but the belief of the impossible needs to grow.
My challenge for us all is to look at life and see how we can grow. Also, when watching t.v. or movies, reading books, try and think about what you can learn from it. I didn't have cable until high school, but when we did and I was watching Disney Channel, I'd realize how disrespectful some of the characters were to their parents, and take away lessons of what not to do. Yet media can have a big influence on you and you may find your self behaving like characters you shouldn't, being a brat, mean, etc. I've seen it, and have fallen into the trap as well, not all the time, but it's happened. So also be careful what you watch and discern what is true and try and take lessons away all the time. Below I'm also going to post the series trailer for the first season of Once, just incase this has sparked your interest =)
With love and Merry CHRISTmas,
Jessica Lynn
